Word Power- Word of the Week

Word of the Week (WOW) is a weekly meme created by Heena Rathore P. . It’s a fun way to improve vocabulary by learning new words every week. To participate, simply do a post with your word and leave a link to it as a comment on Heena’s WOW post.

7th March, 2015

dyspepsia • \dis-PEP-shuh\ • noun

1 : indigestion

2 : ill humor : disgruntlement

Did you know?

When people get indigestion, they are often affected by nausea, heartburn, and gas—things that can cause the world’s greatest gastronome to curse the world’s most delectable dishes. So, it is no wonder that dyspepsia, a word for indigestion, has also come to mean “ill humor” or “disgruntlement.” The word itself is ultimately derived from the Greek prefix dys- (“faulty” or “impaired”) and the verb pessein (“to cook” or “to digest”). To please the wordmonger’s appetite, we would like to end with this tasty morsel: Dyspepsia has an opposite, eupepsia—a rarely used word meaning “good digestion.”

Origin:

Latin, from Greek, from dys- + pepsis digestion, from peptein, pessein to cook, digest — more at cook.

March 13, 2015

nonage • \NAH–nij\ • noun

1 : minority

2 a : a period of youth

b : lack of maturity

Origin: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from non- + age.

First use: 15th century

Synonyms: childhood, springtime, youth

Antonyms: adulthood

Did you know? Minority, majority; infancy, adulthood; nonage, full age—here you have the three contrasting pairs that constitute the vocabulary of legal age. Minority, infancy, and nonage are synonyms that mean “the state or time of being under legal age.” Majority, adulthood, and full age mean “the state or time of being of legal age.” (All these words, particularly infancy and adulthood, have other meanings as well, of course.) Nonage came to us by way of Middle English from an Anglo-French union of non- and age, which combine to mean “not of age.”

March 18, 2015

controvertible • \KAHN-truh-ver-tuh-bul\ • adjective

: capable of being disputed or opposed by reason

Origin: controversy.

First use: 1584

Did you know? If you’re familiar with incontrovertible, you may have wondered about the existence of controvertible. Both words are direct descendants of controvert (“to dispute or oppose by reasoning”), which dates back to 1584 in English and itself derives from controversy. Controvertible was documented in print as early as 1610, and incontrovertible turned up around thirty years later. Controversy comes to us (through Anglo-French) from the Latin controversus, meaning “disputable,” and can ultimately be traced back to the Latin contro- (“against”) and versus, the past participle of vertere (“to turn”).

March 22, 2015

firebrand • \FYRE-brand\ • noun

1 : a piece of burning wood

2 : one that creates unrest or strife (as in aggressively promoting a cause) : agitator

Did you know? The original firebrands were incendiary indeed: they were pieces of wood set burning at the fire, perhaps for use as a light or a weapon. English speakers started brandishing those literal firebrands as long ago as the 13th century. (Robinson Crusoe held one high as he rushed into a cave on his deserted island and saw “by the light of the firebrand . . . lying on the ground a monstrous, frightful old he-goat.”) But the burning embers of the wooden firebrand quickly sparked figurative uses for the term, too. By the early 14th century, firebrand was also being used for one doomed to burn in hell, and by 1382, English writers were using it for anyone who kindled mischief or inflamed passions.

Did you know? Unwanted persiflage on television might provoke an impatient audience to hiss or boo, but from an etymological standpoint, no other reaction could be more appropriate. English speakers picked up persiflage from French in the 18th century. Its ancestor is the French verb persifler, which means “to banter” and was formed from the prefix per-, meaning “thoroughly,” plus siffler, meaning “to whistle, hiss, or boo.” Siffler in turn derived from the Latin verb sibilare, meaning “to whistle or hiss.” By the way, sibilare is also the source of sibilant, a word linguists use to describe sounds like those made by “s” and “sh” in sash. That Latin root also underlies the verb sibilate, meaning “to hiss” or “to pronounce with or utter an initial sibilant.”

April 05, 2015

incisive • \in-SYE-siv\ • adjective

: impressively direct and decisive (as in manner or presentation)

in·ci·sive·ly adverb

in·ci·sive·ness noun

First use: circa 1834

Examples:

“Albee, 84 and frail from recent heart surgery, smiled broadly as he came on stage to take a bow Saturday. He knows that ‘Virginia Woolf’ is the play that will forever be synonymous with his name, and he could not have hoped for a more incisive rendering of it.” — Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times, October 14, 2012

“For more than two decades, Carr focused his considerable talents on media criticism, lacing his columns with incisive commentary and wit.” — Terrence McCoy and Justin Moyer, Washington Post, February 13, 2015

Did you know?

Incisive has meant “impressively direct and decisive” since around 1834 and derives from the Latin verb caedere, meaning “to cut.” Its linguistic kin include many cuttings from the fruitful stem caedere, such as scissors, chisel, incise (“to cut into or engrave”), excise (“to remove by cutting”), incisor (“a front tooth typically adapted for cutting”), incision (“cut” or “gash”), precise (“minutely exact”), and concise (“brief”). In addition to the meaning illustrated above, incisive also carries a couple of lesser-known literal meanings relating to cutting: “having a cutting edge or piercing point” (as in “incisive fangs”), and, in dentistry, “of, relating to, or situated near the incisors.”

April 12th, 2015

Petrichor· \PET-ri-kuhr\· noun

A pleasant smell that frequently accompanies the first rain after a long period of warm, dry weather

Examples:

‘other than the petrichor emanating from the rapidly drying grass, there was not a trace of evidence that it had rained at all’ ‘The petrichor in the air reminded me of home and I found myself humming “Mitti di khushboo” ‘ ( this sentence I made at random from my own experience)

Origin 1960s: blend of petro- ‘relating to rocks’ (the smell is believed to be caused by a liquid mixture of organic compounds which collects in the ground) and ichor.

20th April, 2015

Nonversation ·noun ·

conversation that seems meaningless or without logic

Example:

“There’s a 45-minute wait at the bus office until our coach leaves. Billy disappears to buy water and I strike up a nonversation (smile, nod, hello, Ingalis) with a Kurdish man with a scar on his cheek, who gestures for me to play the guitar.” – blog post at unplanned.com, March 20, 2010

etymology Blend of non and conversation

27th April,2015

Errorist

Etymology error +‎ -ist Noun errorist (plural errorists)

1. One who encourages and propagates error.

2. One who holds onto an erroneous belief.

Examples

This week’s winning bumpersticker from the Thursday delivery route showed a drawing of George W. Bush and said “American errorist.” NOFX – American Errorist “We really hate ammerican errorist!”

3rd May, 2015

limerence

/ˈlɪmɪrəns /

noun

(psychol) a state of mind resulting from romantic attraction, characterized by feelings of euphoria, the desire to have one’s feelings reciprocated, etc

Word Origin

coined by Dorothy Tennov (1928–2007), American psychologist

Synonyms

infatuation

Antonyms

nonlimerence

Alternative forms

limerance

Examples 1. The girl fell in love with the boy in high school, she had a limerence but lost it when she moved away to college. 2. I usually land up being in limerence of the male protagonist of my favourite TV show/ movie during that particular phase of time.

2. The type of conversation held with another person when you really do not wish to talk to them. It consists of short and to the point replies which do not add to the conversation and make it hard for the other person to continue. It is usually to try and convey politely that you do not have the time for this oxygen thief who insists on bothering you.

3. When two people are speaking but neither side of the conversation has anything to do with the other.

Examples

1. I had the most painful nonversation with my girlfriend’s ignorant bigoted father.

2. the thing that I miss the most about school is the nonversations we friends had. Wish could get back those days…..

3. A typical nonversation (related to meaning no 3) goes as follows- “So how are you today?” “Okay.” “What have you been up to?” “Not much.”

14th June, 2015

chairdrobe\noun\

a chair filled with already worn to be worn clothes, and it acts as a makeshift closet or dresser.

Examples:

1. “when staying as bachelors we lived very simple life we could find everything on our chairdrobe!”

2. “That Chairdrobe enlightens that corner of your room!”

21st June,2015

mondegreen\noun\mɒndəɡriːn\plural noun: mondegreens\

1. a misunderstood or misinterpreted word or phrase resulting from a mishearing of the lyrics of a song

2. A mondegreen (also sometimes spelled “mondagreen”) is the accidental mishearing of a phrase in a poem, or song in such a way that it acquires a new, and usually humourous meaning.

Origin

1950s: from Lady Mondegreen, a misinterpretation of the phrase laid him on the green, from the traditional ballad ‘The Bonny Earl of Murray’.

Examples:

1. “There’s a bathroom on the right” is a mondegreen of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “There’s a bad moon on the rise.”

2. “I led the pigeons to the flag” (for “I pledge allegiance to the flag”)

28th June,2015

mellifluous/muh–lif-loo-uh s/

adjective

1. (of a sound) pleasingly smooth and musical to hear.

2.flowingwithhoney;sweetenedwithorasifwithhoney.

3. having a smooth rich flow

Examples:

1. “her low mellifluous voice”

2. a rich, mellifluous voice that gets her a lot of work in radio and TV commercials

extraordinary invisible power believed by the Iroquois Indians to pervade in varying degrees all animate and inanimate natural objects as a transmissible spiritual energy capable of being exerted according to the will of its possessor

Origin

early 20th century: coined in English as the supposed Huron form of a Mohawk word.

Examples

1. a successful hunter’s orenda overcomes that of his quarry

2. This orenda is your power to do things, your force, sometimes almost your personality.

27th September,2015

Logophile /noun/ log-uh-fyl

1. A lover of words
2. A person who enjoys having an expansive vocabulary.
3. A person who loves the way words interact with each other to create sentences.

6th October,2015

Astraphobia /noun/ as-truh-foh-bee-uh /

1 A morbid fear of thunder and lightning

It is also known as astrapophobia, brontophobia, keraunophobia, or tonitrophobia. It is a treatable phobia that both humans and animals can develop.

22nd November,2015

Atelier / noun / atuh-lyey /
plural noun: ateliers

A studio especially for an artist or designer

Synonyms
artist’s workroom

Origin

late 17th century: from French, from Old French astelle ‘splinter of wood’, from Latin astula.

There’s no compulsion dear… you can do the way you want.
I make separate posts (see on my blog, you’ll find different posts with names like- WOW #1 and so on) and I also have a separate page named Word Treasure for WOW words… it’s here: http://heenarathorep.com/word-treasure/

Hi, Priya. I’ve only just realised you’ve still been doing your WOW posts. I didn’t realise you had them all on one page. All of the words you’ve done since your first one, look excellent. Unfortunately, because they all share the same page, I can’t click the like button again. Have you thought about doing a separate page for each word?
I can’t say I’ve ever used nonage in my books, but I’ve certainly used controvertible and firebrand.
You’ve explained all these words well. 🙂

It’s no more problematic than seting up any post, Priya. Just click on the little
pencil symbol at the top right of any page. You just need to put Heena’s colourful heading at the top and write out the things you want to say about your chosen word.
The easiest way, once you’ve got one single word on a page, is to copy the same page every week, so the heading and tags stay the same. You just need to delete the parts about last week’s word and add the new one. On the New Page you open by clicking the pecil, the ‘Copy New Post’ will be at the far right. Just click on it, then on the post you want to copy.
If all that is too much to take in, just start afresh each week until you get the hang of it.

Me

I am Priya (I prefer Pia, though), a crazy bibliophile, an unpublished writer, a philatelist and a numismatist. Welcome to my blog, you will find here some random writings of mine, be it fiction, poems, or some opinionated articles and also loads of book reviews as I gorge on books all the time.